Security Beefed Up In Ayodhya After Pro-Khalistani Leader Pannun Warns Of Violence At Ram Mandir

Ayodhya: Security has beefed up in Ayodhya after a fresh audio claimed to be of Canada-based Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun appeared on social media threatening violence in Ram temple on November 16 and 17.

“The deployment is done according to the security norms. We have increased the security arrangements in the whole of Ayodhya and Yellow zone of the shrine. We take cognizance of such threats,”Uttar Pradesh DGP Prashant Kumar told reporters on Tuesday.

Pannun is the leader of a US-based group Sikh for Justice (SFJ). The group supports the secession of Punjab from India as Khalistan and has issued multiple threats in the past.

“The police are cross checking the authenticity of Pannun’s viral threat message being circulated on social media,” Ayodhya range Inspector General (IG) of Police, Praveen Kumar, said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

According to sources, elaborate security arrangements have been put in place in the ongoing Kartik Parikrama Mela, which will end on November 15.

Cops claimed that such videos had surfaced in the past, but the law enforcement agencies had managed to avert all of those.

“We will shake the foundations of Ayodhya, birthplace of the violent Hindutva ideology,” an India Today report quoted Pannun as saying.

Pannun had earlier threatened passengers travelling with Air India between November 1 and 19. He claimed that this period ‘coincided with the 40th anniversary of the 1984 Sikh genocide’. The Canada-US dual citizen had also issued a similar threat during the same period last year.